Artificial Sweeteners in Diet Pepsi

Pepsi is looking to tweak its current formula in the coming year to include a 'new and improved' chemical cocktail of artificial sweeteners to compete with its major competitors: Diet Coke and Coke Zero.

According to USA Today, an insider at PepsiCo divulged that because aspartame, the chemical sweetener used in Diet Pepsi, becomes less sweet over time due to variables such as heat, they want to change its formula to retain the sweetness for the long haul.

The new formula is said to include other artificial sweeteners including acesulfame potassium (AKA ace-K).

Combining artificial sweeteners isn't a new practice. We came across many products containing these chemical sweetener combinations when writing Unjunk Your Junk Food including:

Trident Spearmint gum: combines three different types of artificial sweeteners including aspartame, ace-k and sucralose (marketed under the brand name Splenda). (page 180)

SunnyD: contains a combination of ace-K and neotame, another chemical sweetener. (page 198)

Chemical sweeteners are anywhere from 200 to 600,000 times sweeter than sugar. They are our Scary Seven ingredient #6 and we advise caution when ingesting them as the research is outdated and further studies are needed to prove their safety. Check out our infographic on Facebook.